THE BALLOON MAN

Deep-fried Kool-Aid balls are the latest sensation in summer fair food (with video)

Monday, June 20, 2011

By Simon A. Thalmann,

MLive.com (Kalamazoo Gazette)

Summer means festivals, fairs and fried food: French fries, elephant ears and ... Kool-Aid? That's right, the latest fair-food sensation is deep-fried Kool-Aid balls, reportedly created by "Chicken" Charlie Boghosian of Chicken Charlie's, a fried-food-providing staple at fairs around the U.S.
Boghosian told the San Diego Union-Tribune last week that he sold 400 to 600 orders of deep-fried Kool-Aid per day the first weekend of the San Diego County Fair, which runs through the Fourth of July. That's about double the rate of his previous debut items, he said, which have included deep-fried Klondike Bars and Pop Tarts.
He's also sold deep-fried Thin Mints, frog legs, Oreos, Coca-Cola and even White Castle burgers.
In the ABCNews.com video below — which shows him making the deep-fried Kool-Aid treats from a mixture of water, flour and, of course, Kool-Aid powder — Boghosian says he was a big fan of Kool-Aid as a kid.
"We drank Kool-Aid growing up," he says, "so I thought why not fry it and see what happens?"